A blog designed to expand and examine the dynamic world of history.
Courtesy of Gavin Kanowitz. Sister Blog www.worldoreason.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The Roots of Beer in Ancient History

Beer is one of the oldest foodstuffs produced by human beings; it shows up in written history as early as 6000 B.C. Ancient Sumerians actually developed a prayer to the goddess Ninkasi that doubled as a beer recipe. This prayer is the oldest surviving beer recipe in existence.

The discovery of beer was probably an accident, with some wild, airborne yeasts interacting with stored barley and then spontaneously fermenting. Beer quickly grew to become an important part of many developing cultures. Anthropologists have uncovered evidence dating back to 3000 B.C. that in ancient Iraq, each city-state had its own brewmaster who was responsible for all of the beer production in that city.